Tottenham V. Sunderland: It Is Time For Redknapps' Spurs To Be Bold Again

Tottenham Hotspur have had an up and down week. Euphoric highs with the demolition of the European Champions at White Hart Lane last Tuesday to the thoroughly predictable low of another defeat to Bolton at the Reebok.

The boldness of the selection of a team to attack Inter Milan is contrasted by Redknapps unambitious and misshapen selection of a team picked to physically compete with Bolton rather than outplay them.

Tuesdays side relied on speed on both sides to worry the Italians as well as guile in the centre of the pitch. It was a bold and brave selection that was well rewarded with flowing football and a great result.

Saturday, lunchtime's team was lacking a wide-right player, although I suspect Krancjar was supposed to be there at least some of the time and the brains of Huddlestone and Van Der Vaart were replaced with the brawn of Palacios and Sandro.

Wilson Palacios, unfortunately, hasn't performed with the bite he had when he first arrived for some time, and Sandro hasn't really gotten with the programme quite yet.

Harry could perhaps have gotten away with playing one of them but not both together in the centre of the park. With Kranjcar constantly drifting inside to join them the team were very unbalanced. Crouch, playing the lone striker role, particularly with no Van Der Vaart, is not much of a plan either, I am sorry to say.

It was only when Spurs had gone well behind that Redknapp decided to play some football and went back to the traditional 4-4-2 formation to try and get back in the game. It nearly worked to be fair, as two late goals flew in to give a few moments of hope. The game was lost in the dying moments whilst pushing for an equaliser.

At least it was lost while trying to play some football, which was not the case in the first half.

Tuesday's home match against Sunderland should bring back the more attacking attitude we saw last week. Unfortunately, it seems unlikely Lennon and Van der Vaart will be available, but there are still plenty of options to put out an attacking lineup.

SuperPav is in goal-scoring form and David Bentley cheered things up significantly in the final moments on Saturday, so perhaps they deserve a starting place with Huddlestone back in the middle with Modric.

The attacking philosophy is the most important ingredient to ensure Tottenhams league challenge doesn't falter. This is an important fixture to win and I expect Sunderland will be coming down trying not to lose rather than win.

I hope Spurs can be as effective as Bolton were in killing that little plan off.